The laboratory doors slowly opened, and a chill swept over them. Pale fluorescent lights illuminated everything.
The air was thick with an indescribable mixture of smells: disinfectant, chemical reagents, and the scent of some unknown organism.
Inside the laboratory, towering bioreactors stood like enormous glass coffins, cultivating all kinds of bizarre organisms.
Some gave off a faint blue glow; others had tentacles that swayed slowly in the liquid.
In the corner, rows of gene sequencers and analyzers flashed red indicator lights.
"Francis, where are you going? We're in the middle of a fight over here. Aren't you coming?" Leman Russ's words came through the Astropath.
"Ugh, you really got me into a mess! I'm running for my life. You've got hundreds of thousands of warriors whenever you want, but my Soul Drinkers don't have that many. I can't bear to risk them."
Hearing Francis, Leman Russ's weathered face reddened. "I don't know why, but I just can't remember."
"I'll come find you again in a while. I've wrecked all their warships, so the old geezer should have an easy time dealing with Horus now. Just don't let them push him so far that he gets his backbone broken."
Leman Russ: "...This is a critical moment. I can't get away."
"Oh! No wonder. Daemons invaded just now. So the old geezer was busy with something else and didn't protect my warship, huh?"
Leman Russ could clearly feel a chill emanating from the Imperial Palace behind him. It was that kind of cold where the longer you stood in the sun, the colder you felt.
Gollum~
"Francis, if you're unhappy, you can say so. Badmouthing Father behind his back like this won't work. He can hear you."
Hearing Leman Russ say this only made Francis even more smug. He said,
"Do you think I'm afraid he'll hear me? Even if the old geezer spoke to me in person, I'd say the same thing!"
"I was undercover in enemy territory! It was dangerous! Then you all went and exposed me just like that! Thank goodness I didn't get caught. Otherwise, I'd already be back in the old geezer's embrace."
Francis was clearly very unhappy about being exposed. It had thrown his original plan into disarray.
"...Anyway, let's talk about the real issue. Did you do something to enrage everyone? Magnus says Perturabo withdrew halfway through their fight. Apparently, he received orders from Horus to hunt you down."
???
Francis looked utterly shocked. "Are they crazy? Why chase me instead of attacking Terra?"
"I'm not the Emperor! If they want to fight someone, they should fight the Emperor. Why come after me?"
Leman Russ: ...
Before long, the call ended. Francis fell into deep thought. Had he really done something that bad?
"Ahem, ahem. Primarch, if you don't stop now, the specimen inside will die."
Fabius Bile gave a soft cough. There seemed to be something wrong with his genetic makeup; his transformation had never been completed.
His skin was pale, perhaps from spending so long exposed to radiation and chemicals in the laboratory, and he looked almost sickly. Deep wrinkles were etched into his face.
He wasn't particularly burly, but his muscles were exceptionally developed and twisted, covered in scars and wounds.
The surgical tools strapped to his back swayed gently as if they had souls of their own.
Hiss~
The incubation chamber opened. As the mist cleared, a pale lump of flesh appeared inside, throbbing repeatedly.
"Don't worry. Experiments always swing between failure and success. We can just try again. It's not like we're short on supplies," Francis joked.
Fabius gave an awkward smile but said nothing, his eyes fixed feverishly on the chamber.
Genetic experiments involving Xenos were restricted in the Imperium, and he couldn't even tell what kind of creature these genes came from.
"Old man, are you looking for a way to live forever? Your body doesn't look like it can hold out much longer."
At that, Fabius turned and smiled. "Heh, I can't compare to you, Primarch. My body was born with deficient genes, so I really won't live much longer. I do want to live longer."
The instant he turned back—bang!
The creature in the incubation chamber lunged straight at the glass in front of him, startling Fabius.
It was more accurate to say that it had lunged at Francis. This made him a little puzzled, since the thing had been made using his own genes.
Francis had extracted some encrypted sequences from his own genome, then casually used them to generate this thing.
Just as Francis was about to reach over and get it himself, Fabius stopped him. "That won't do. It's far too dangerous. We still don't know what it can do."
"Handling it recklessly now could cause an accident!"
Francis gave him a strange look. "So?"
"So let me do it! I'm not afraid of danger! Heh." Fabius stared at the flesh like a lovesick creep, nearly pressing his face against it for a kiss.
Hiss~
The glass casing opened, and Fabius immediately lunged forward. Unfortunately, the creature slid right through him like a mass of fluid.
Then it shot straight at Francis and, with a splat, stuck to his arm.
"Primarch, how could you be so careless? This is far too dangerous! Let me handle it!"
"Huff... Why is it so tough? I can't pull it off!"
As he spoke, Fabius tugged hard at the lump of flesh. A flush appeared on his gaunt face, and even the two mechanical arms on his back tried to join in.
But just as they were about to touch the flesh, they both recoiled.
"My mechanical arms have Machine Spirits now???"
Fabius hurriedly let go. He had never imagined that the mechanical arms on his own body could develop Machine Spirits. What if they suddenly turned against him one day?
Meanwhile, Francis tried to accept the lump of flesh. The flesh on his arm soon changed into whatever shape he wanted.
When he reached for a Meltagun nearby, the flesh absorbed the weapon into itself. At the same time, words related to the Rangdan appeared in his memory.
"Ah! Ah! Genetic technology can fuse inorganic matter too? What kind of creature did these genes come from? How have I never heard of it?"
Fabius stared wide-eyed and circled Francis's arm over and over, muttering to himself.
"This makes no sense! This isn't scientific!"
"I've never heard of any creature with technology like this! If one existed, how could I not know about it?"
"Could it be an extremely rare mutation? Tsk, tsk, tsk... No, that doesn't seem right either."
"Primarch, how did you do that?"
Francis had only just come to his senses, and he was just as baffled. When he consciously directed it, the mechanical parts on his arm could keep changing.
A gun turned into a sword, then the sword turned into a hammer, and the hammer turned into a rice cooker. It could even turn from a rice cooker into a prosthetic limb!
Francis: ...
Fabius: ...
"Ahem, ahem, ahem. You still have a long way to go in the field of genetic technology. Do you understand?"
Francis's words struck Fabius like a bolt of lightning. His body trembled uncontrollably. He had thought he was still a pioneer in the Imperium's genetic technology.
But who could have guessed? Who could have imagined? He had only just crossed the threshold of this field.
"Primarch! I'm with you from now on!"
Fabius was too excited to speak. In the end, those were the only words he managed to choke out.
Francis turned and walked out of the laboratory, leaving behind a dashing silhouette. "Take your time learning. We'll bring back the technology of the Dark Age!"
Fabius was even more excited when he heard this.
"Exactly! We'll rekindle the light of Dark Age technology!"
Hiss~
As the doors closed, Francis returned to his quarters.
Francis looked just as baffled. "Tsk, tsk, tsk... This is definitely not right!"
"Could I really have made this thing?!"
The creature was extremely attached to him. It didn't seem to have full consciousness, but Francis still felt uneasy carrying it around.
His intuition told him he needed to hide it.
No! He should say he needed to destroy it...
Meanwhile.
In the boundless reaches of space, the Steel Blood, a Gloriana-class Battleship belonging to the Fourth Legion, hung motionless in the dark abyss of the cosmos like a sleeping steel beast.
Its hull gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, as if reflecting the faint light of nearby stars, displaying its imposing might.
The bridge, at the very front of the warship, was the heart of the Steel Blood.
The captain and his officers sat rigidly, their gazes sharp, tense but orderly.
"What did you say?"
"You want me to hold off the Ultramarines and Dark Angels, and clear your path to Terra?"
"And at the same time, go to Mars to deal with Francis and persuade the Adeptus Mechanicus to rebel with you?"
Perturabo's voice was low and powerful. He wore a helmet that covered half his face, leaving only his blazing eyes visible. His chest heaved, and the breastplate of his Power Armour rumbled deeply with each breath.
"What the hell do you take me for?"
His terrifying aura left the Astropath too frightened to breathe. He hurriedly explained, "Those were the Warmaster's orders, not mine."
Perturabo angrily punched the wall, smashing a huge hole in the ship. Even then, he had held back.
"What else did Horus say?"
The Astropath swallowed, not daring to speak.
"Come on! What else did he say?!"
A massive shadow fell over the Astropath. Trembling, he answered,
"The Warmaster also said... he believes in you!"
At that, Perturabo took a deep breath, then quietly walked out.
A few minutes later,
the ship began to shake violently, as if a beast were tearing the battleship apart!
Before you continue